He squeezed her shoulder. “You’re very brave, Cali.”
When he sank his teeth into her this time, she cried out a bit and hit his shoulder with her palm until he finished. He spit the acrid sap onto the ground, a waste of the precious stuff, but if no one was monitoring his ration, he would take it after helping her.
“Can you take it one more time?”
“No. Or…I don’t know.”
“Then I’ll draw from your arm and be done with you.”
“You’re going to do it again anyway?”
“I haven’t eaten yet.”
“Oh. Okay. Then fix the last one on this arm.”
“Very well.” He had to stand to angle correctly, and when he had found the entry position, he sank into her. She cried out and pulled at his hair until he made a sound of pain before she released her grip. When he pulled away to spit the bitter poison onto the ground Cali sat shaking and crying.
Another stab of anger and pity for the poor creature traveled through Draven. He sat stroking her hair the same way he would stroke any suffering animal. After a bit, she ceased crying and wiped her face on the sleeve of his shirt. He lifted her arm and pulled up the sleeve and began licking her wounds. When he’d gotten all traces of sap, and the first two bite marks had closed, he slipped back into the third one and drew as gently as he could. Her breath came harder again, but she did not repeat the dreadful sounds of pain.
He sealed her skin and pulled the sleeve of his shirt over her arm. “Who has done this thing to you so many times?”
“I don’t know. He’s always in such a hurry to get me and then leave.”
“Is he important?”
“I…how would I tell?”
“Does he look important? Do other Superiors treat him like he’s important? Do they walk him down to you?”
“I…I guess. I don’t know.”
Draven thought of only one reason someone would hurry that much. Fake papers. Someone scared of being caught. “Is this man large, muscular? Shaved head? An older man with tattoos?” He tried to remember anything else he could about Ander. “Frightening?”
Cali startled him again with her quiet laughter. “You all look scary to me.”
“We do?”
“Pretty much. Well, most of you.”
“Do I scare you?”
“Not very much. Only when you smile.”
“Why am I less scary? And why does my smile scare you?”
“Your teeth are scary. But the rest of you…well, you don’t look very strong or anything.”
“You don’t believe I’m strong? I could kill you with one hand, easily enough.”
He tried not to take offense, but found it difficult when even a sap—a young one, nearly a child—didn’t fear him because he looked weak.
“And that’s why you’re all scary,” she said, smiling.
“I see. But that wasn’t my question. Did I describe the man who comes to you every night?”
“No. He’s not that old, and he has hair.”
“Can you try to remember what he looks like?”
“Like any of you. He has dark hair, I know that. And teeth.”
Draven laughed. “You have teeth too, little pet, and I don’t think you’re scary.”
“Well, you might if I sucked your blood every time I saw you.”
“I suppose I might,” he said, shaking his head at the thought. “How is your arm feeling?”
“Better. Thanks.” He started to rise, but she slid her hand over his bare forearm and looked up at him with serious eyes. “I mean it,” she said. “Thank you. A lot.”
“You’re quite welcome, my jaani.” He stood and ruffled her amber hair, which had grown longer, and much lighter, since she’d returned to the Confinement. “Are you still cold?” he asked.
“Not too awfully. Do you want to come see the garden? We’re getting ready for the rainy season.”
“Indeed, we are. Very well then. You may show me.” He slipped on his sunshades to block the increasing light and followed Cali while she showed him the area, the beds freshly dug and planted. “You have done all this in the few days you’ve been here?”
She laughed. “Not just me. We all help. And I’ve been here over a month.”
“You have?”
“Yes.” She looked at Draven strangely. “Did you forget?”
“It’s not exactly forgetting. We just don’t try to keep time as you sapiens do.”
“You have a different way of keeping time?”
“No. I don’t attempt it. How can one ‘keep’ time? It passes and is gone.”
“But how do you know…anything that happens?”
Draven shrugged. “I know the days. When to get up and sleep by the light, and when to work by the bells. When I have an assignment, I know I’m finished when they tell me I am.”
Cali shook her head. “That’s so strange. I thought you were all awfully smart.”
“It’s nothing to do with intelligence,” he said. “It’s about priorities. Time simply doesn’t concern me as much.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, you are born, and you grow into adulthood, you procreate, and you age and die. I will never grow or age, or die. So what meaning has time?”
“You guys never die?”
“I’ve told you this before.”
“I know, but I didn’t know if I believed you. I always thought that was just a story.”
“It is true. So if I have forever, what is one week, a month, a year? Nothing.”
“That’s so…sad.”
“Sad? How so?”
Cali shrugged. “I don’t know. It just is. I mean, how can life mean anything if you’re never going to die?”
“You are full of surprises, Cali Youngblood.”
“I am?”
“Yes. I think you’re… Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never imagined. But I believe you’re…thinking.”
She laughed. “Of course I’m thinking. Don’t you guys think?”
“Yes, but…I was always told that intelligence had been bred out of sapiens. That you didn’t think anymore. Not in that way.”
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe I’m a freak of nature. But I doubt it.” They walked back towards the barracks, from which a few other saps were emerging before entering their feeding area. Neither Draven nor Cali spoke. After a few moments, Cali’s hand slipped into his. He turned to her, surprised, but she studied her feet as they walked. Her heart beat rapidly.
“Cali?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell you something?”
“Yeah.”
“Do not discuss this kind of thing with anyone else, yes? Not your people, nor mine. If people begin to notice…it could be dangerous. For you.”
She laughed. “You’re pulling a joke, aren’t you? Everyone thinks, Master. It’s not just me. I talk to people all the time. I’m no smarter than anyone else.”
“I believe that you are. You simply do not know that you are. Just…be careful. Yes?”
“Yes, Master.”
He pulled his hand from hers. “Don’t call me that. I don’t own you.”
“I didn’t—I’m sorry. Sir. We have to call all of you master.”
“I don’t like it. All right?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Do you know my name?”
“No.”
“Good. I’ve talked to you more than I should. Perhaps I should stay away for a while.”
“Please don’t. I…like talking to you.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t know. No one else heals the bites.”
So she liked him for that kindness alone. That was acceptable. They should not enjoy each other’s company. That would mean he had not kept appropriate distance between them according to their respective stations.
“I will return another time,” he said. “Perhaps not for some time.” They stopped at the end of the barracks in which Cali slept. They stood separat
e, facing each other across the immutable distance between sapien and Superior. “I hope your garden grows well. Have a good rainy season,” Draven said.
“Yes, mas—sir. You, too.”
“And remember what I told you, about discussing these matters. Never to a Superior. Understand?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
“All right then. I would let you keep the shirt, but you could be questioned.”
“Right, of course,” Cali said, shrugging out of it and handing it back. Draven slid it on over his t-shirt. Her scent enveloped him, lingering like the most delicious perfume.
“I will return one day, my jaan. Be careful.”
“You, too.”
He left, squinting into the light. He had stayed too long. The sun had risen blindingly bright. Even with sunshades, he had to squint so hard that when he got home, he had a headache. Another waited on his doorstep.
Lira stood as he approached. “Where have you been?” she asked. “It’s late. It’s sunny.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve been out in it. It’s quite bright. What do you want?”
“You stink.”
“Thank you, Lira. Now what do you want?”
“You smell like that sap who was in here. Is she still here?”
“No. I just drew from her.”
“You smell really strong.”
“Indeed. I had her here, I developed a taste for her. I go there and eat her sometimes. I mean from her. I eat from her sometimes. What is it to you?”
“I just don’t like the savory.”
“I haven’t asked you to.”
“Can I sleep with you today?”
“No. I am pursuing a partnership.”
“That…Oriental girl?”
“Hyoki. And she’s not Oriental. She’s a person.”
“Yeah? I don’t see what’s so great about her.”
“You wouldn’t, would you? But I do. So I am sleeping alone. And the next time I’m not, it will not be with you.”
“You’re nothing but a dirty sap-sucker, anyway. I don’t know why I bother.”
“I don’t, either.”
Draven entered his apartment, removed his shades, and stood breathing, calming himself in the pitch darkness of his light-proof bedroom. When he had relaxed a bit, he undressed and climbed into bed. Only a trace of Cali’s scent remained. He felt for the shirt on the floor. Small droplets of Cali’s sap had leaked from his bites and soaked into the sleeve, swathing it in her tantalizing aroma. Draven buried his face in it and inhaled as deeply as he could, over and over, until he slipped into sleep.
29
“So Cali, I hear you got a new boyfriend,” one of the snarky girls taunted. “That Johnny boy?”
Cali pretended not to hear the other girls in line at the mess hall.
“Yeah, I hear he’s real fond of you,” another girl said, poking Cali’s back.
“What, you gonna pretend you don’t hear us now? What, you too good for us, now you got yourself a boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Cali said, keeping her head down.
“Ah, yeah he is. He told me you looking real fine this morning.”
“What, you not interested? You think ‘cause you been working in them restaurants that you too good for us now? Is that it? Now you come back here, and Johnny just ain’t good enough for you?”
“Forget her, she’s a bitch.”
Cali got her food without a word and turned away from the girls. She sat at a table and waited for one of her sisters to show up. Not that she couldn’t defend herself if she needed to. She probably could. It would just be less likely to come to blows if she had a sister or two with her. She’d gotten used to the teasing, though her sisters kept telling her it would die down. As far as she was concerned, it couldn’t happen soon enough. It didn’t help that one of the boys had been sniffing around.
“Oh, excu-use me.” Ruth tipped Cali’s cup of water across her tray of food. “Oops,” the girl said, laughing.
Cali sighed and righted her cup. Water-logged cornbread. Again.
“Why don’t you just have your boyfriend help you clean that up,” another girl said.
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Uh huh. I seen him hanging around, all big-eyed and wanting-like.”
“Oh, no. I heard she got a whole other kind of boyfriend. That true, Cali?”
Cali poked at her food. What was keeping her sisters?
“Yeah, Mona says you got a bloodsucker boyfriend. Says she saw you wearing his shirt last week. Said you was out kissing in the garden.”
“Oooh yeah. Cali got a bloodsucker boyfriend. Ain’t that something else. He been around courting you this week?”
“Just leave me alone, okay? I’m not trying to bother anybody.”
“You hear that Ruth? She ain’t trying to bother nobody. Ain’t that just cute?”
Two of Cali’s sisters joined her, and Ruth and her friends moved off, laughing and looking back as they walked away.
“What was that all about?” Zinnia asked.
“Nothing,” Cali said, spooning her beans on top of the wet cornbread. “The usual.”
“Were they talking about your bloodsucker?” Poppy asked.
“He’s not mine. And no, they were just talking about one of the other ones.”
“What were they saying?”
“One of them made me go out to the garden, and he gave me his shirt because I was cold. So they’re saying he’s my boyfriend.”
“Ewww,” Zinnia said, laughing. “That’s so gross.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Poppy said. “If I couldn’t have a real boyfriend, I’d probably look at a bloodsucker. Some of them are cute, when they’re not smiling.”
“Poppy!” Cali said, trying to hold back a laugh. “That’s just wrong.”
“Hey, you wouldn’t know. Boys are great. I heard that Jonathan was asking after you.”
“I’m not looking for a boyfriend, or to get married, okay? I just want to do the garden and try not to get bit too much.”
“But you hafta have babies.”
“Why? There’s no rule about it.”
“Yeah, but that’s the only way you’ll ever get out of here,” Poppy said, leaning across the table. “Everyone knows they like the women with the most babies. They get treated the best. And then they get out, they’re free out there somewhere, having their own gardens and never once ever getting bit.”
“Well, I don’t believe it,” Cali said. “I’ve been out there for three years, and I’ve never seen a free homo-sapien yet. The only thing free is the bloodsuckers.”
“Don’t tell her that, Cali,” Zinnia said. “We’ll get out, Poppy. Cali don’t know what she’s talking about.”
Cali stabbed at her food, knowing she had to eat but no longer hungry. “What took you so long? Where’s Gwen?”
“Gwen’s with Mama. She’s real sick today.”
“More than yesterday?”
“Yeah, she’s real bad. She can’t even get up to eat.”
“Can we bring her some food?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna try.”
“I’ll go and see her now,” Cali said.” I’m done, and Gwen can come eat.”
“Okay, good. Think you can ask one of your loyal followers to make sure she gets seen at the clinic?”
“I don’t have followers. They just like to drink my blood. It’s not like we’re friends.”
“Okay, whatever you say. But I haven’t been bit for months. I just thought you could ask one of them. What about that one who comes in every night? I heard one of the girls said he looked real big-stuff.”
“He’s mean, and I don’t think we even speak his language. He never says anything, and my arms are aching every minute of the day from him biting me. Want to get some followers, Poppy? You can have them.”
“Well, you don’t got to get all mad. I was just saying, I thought maybe you were important now t
hat you’d been in the restaurants.”
“I don’t want to be important. I just want to be in the garden and for the stupid biters and the stupid girls in here to leave me alone. I’m going to see Mama. And if you want to be important to a Superior, why don’t you let me have your spot in the house and you can sleep in the barracks?”
Cali walked off, since none of her sisters had an answer for that. They didn’t understand. They got bit once in a while, if they happened to be out or if a Superior had extra time to wander and liked the savory of one of them. Otherwise they only had to go to the regular blood-draw every day. Her sisters were the lucky ones. They hadn’t been bitten every night for years, lots of times every night, and they didn’t quite understand how awful it was to have ‘loyal followers.’ Cali didn’t want followers. She just wanted her stupid arms to stop hurting.
30
The next time Draven visited Cali, he found her lying limp and slumped away from him, and he had to drag her from her bunk. After extracting her, he wrapped his shirt around her stooped shoulders. She stood motionless, eyes on her feet. At first he thought her only tired.
“Is something wrong?” Draven asked when she did not move. “Are you cold?”
She shook her head.
“Are you ill?”
She shook her head again.
“Then let us walk outside.” He started for the doors, but she stood rooted in place. He turned back, took her hand and gave a small tug. Cali followed him, still hanging back. He checked her out, and they stepped out into the blue dawn. A fog hung low over the grounds, and when they walked into the garden, it was as if they walked on clouds. Looking down, Draven could hardly see their feet.
Neither he nor Cali spoke. He’d never ventured so far into the garden, and he had to follow Cali’s footsteps to ensure he did not trod on the plants. He spotted a large boulder at the end of a row and stopped. Daylight would come soon, and he wanted to eat first.
“Let us sit here, little pet.”
Cali did not answer, and she did not stop. Her insolence was dangerous. She needed to learn, and someone else might teach her a harsher lesson than he would. He strode up behind her and caught her arm and spun her around. But the words he had intended stopped in his mouth.
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